Block Brewing

As I have been made aware of my audience, I have been negligent in keeping updated.  The new place in town here, Block Brewing, has been a hang-out of sorts in the last couple weeks.  Three meals and a couple of Beers.  I don't take detailed notes when eating with friends, so that's not going to appear here.  Anyway, a sampling of some beers that I had of theirs:

Hop Genius
Love Me
These two were very hoppy... not my favorite category.  Drinking partner Dr. Green and White really enjoyed the contrast between the hop notes, with one being more citrus-y, but I unfortunately cannot remember which.  Both seemed very hop forward without much other flavor.  No real off-notes, but just a bit bitter without much of a pay-off for me.  Good, but if I want hoppy, I want a Two-Hearted.

Atlas Amber
Pretty good amber ale, good robust beer flavor without anything offensive to it.  Decently bitter and interesting.  Had a pair of these on my second visit.

Cross-Eyed Moose
Transporter
?Blackout Stout?
Not 100% sure this was the stout that I had, but I think so.  There wasn't as much contrast with these three as I think there should have been given the descriptions, but they were all solid malty beers with nice dark roasty flavors.  The coffee flavoring of one of them was nice, but for something billed as a coffee flavor, I want more coffee forward.

Now, I've heard good things about a couple others, but they were out both days I was in there.  For reference, those are the Blood-Red Orange IPA, the Blonde, and the Black IPA.

For food, they focus on Barbecue. They did, however, keep the pretzel sticks and cheese from the old Shark Club menu.  My son and his little friends greatly appreciate that. I got the 'Big Block Burger' twice and the Brisket sandwich once.  I also saw/sampled the pulled pork sandwich.  All pretty solid.  The variety of sauces is nothing to write home about, but they are good.  I found the Texas Hot to be most to my liking with the beef, though the others worked well too.  The Kid's mac and cheese was huge and pretty darned good.  I was stealing forkfuls of that with a little dip in the sauces.  I saw a pizza at the next table that looked pretty decent as well.

Altogether, my expectations were very low... I thought this place was doomed.  The Shark Club always had great beer selection, but the atmosphere was horrible and the food was just OK.  The atmosphere is 100% better with a nice new dark wood interior and better tables.  The food is good, though perhaps a more limited menu.  They still have a handful of rotating taps for other craft brews, and the selection was more than decent, but not the expansive list that the Shark Club had.  I really hope these guys can make this a successful place.  Can't beat the location from my house and it is way easier to get the family in and out of there than most other places around.

Cheers,
Andy